A fish tale

A fish tale

WRITTEN BY LINDSAY WILLEY

WVU and West Virginia Division of Natural Resources scientists expand efforts to restore and protect native brook trout populations.

For years, a team of West Virginia University researchers has been working alongside the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to restore and protect native brook trout in our state’s watersheds.

The official state fish of West Virginia — and the only trout species native to its streams — brook trout are excellent indicators of water quality, as they live and reproduce in only the coldest and purest streams.

Throughout the state, however, their habitats and populations have been compromised by a variety of circumstances.

“For nearly a decade the WVU Natural Resource Analysis Center has been closely partnered with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) in stream restoration and habitat enhancements on cold water fisheries,” said Paul Kinder, director of NRAC. “In particular, our work has focused on the brook trout, as they are the only native trout species in the state and their presence in streams indicates very healthy watersheds in terms of chemistry, temperature and habitat.”

Although stream restoration and habitat enhancements are an ongoing process, as progress is made researchers have turned attention to protecting and expanding native brook trout populations.

Late last fall, DNR biologists briefly captured several native brook trout from a small stream in Hampshire County. The breeding-size fish were stripped of eggs and milt (the sperm-containing fluid) and quickly returned to the water.

The fertilized eggs were delivered to aquaculture facilities at Reymann Memorial Farm in Wardensville, allowing scientists to successfully hatch and raise the young trout to fingerling size over the course of several months.

“In order to produce brook trout from green eggs you need a substantial source of cold, clean water, and a facility possessing the necessary equipment to hold and secure the fish at different life stages before you can repatriate them to acceptable streams,” said Brandon Keplinger, fisheries biologist with the West Virginia DNR.

According to Jerry Yates, manager of the Reymann Memorial Farm, the aquaculture facility is versatile and was developed with multiple purposes in mind.

“We have hatched eggs here before and had the equipment, facility and expertise available to assist the WVDNR with this great project,” Yates said. “We specifically used specialized trays for incubation of the eggs, providing fresh, clean spring water at a constant flow rate.”

After hatching and developing beyond the larval stage, the fish were moved to small specialized tanks where they are carefully fed and nurtured.

“After they grew to about one-half to one-inch long we moved them to a larger tank and began transitioning their diet to a more natural feedstuffs — flies, bugs and meal worms,” he explained. “The whole process took almost eight months to complete.”

On May 25, officials released the fingerlings into a tributary of the Cacapon River, a watershed that lost its native brook trout population years ago.

According to Keplinger, the decision to stock fingerlings has been a wellthought-out process.

“DNR initially stocked hatchery-raised trout, but they didn’t reproduce well,” he said. “We also tried taking adult native brook trout from one stream and putting them in another, but this depleted the trout population of the donor stream and increased the chance of transferring harmful bacteria to the new stream. Stocking fingerling trout appears to have been successful.”